Soccer Football - Premier League - Chelsea v Crystal Palace - Stamford Bridge, London, Britain - September 1, 2024 Crystal Palace's Eberechi Eze scores their first goal REUTERS/David Klein
LONDON (Reuters) -Chelsea had to settle for a 1-1 home draw against Crystal Palace after a second-half equaliser by Eberechi Eze gave the visitors their first point of the Premier League season on Sunday as they bounced back from a poor start in a much-improved second half.
The hosts broke the deadlock in the 25th minute after Palace defender Marc Guehi made an ill-advised raid forward and lost the ball, quickly exposing the visitors' defensive frailties.
Winger Noni Madueke surged down the right before picking out Cole Palmer, whose deft pass found Nicolas Jackson steaming through the centre to score with ease from close range.
After slumping to successive defeats in their opening games against Brentford and West Ham United and starting badly at Stamford Bridge, the Eagles finally got lift-off after the break.
After the influential Palmer almost scored from a direct free kick, Palace found their mojo as Eze equalised in the 53rd, picking up the rebound from Cheick Doucoure's blocked shot and curling the ball beautifully into the net from outside the box.
Both sides continued to chase a winner, with Levi Colwill going close for Chelsea and Palace's Daichi Kamada forcing a fine save from Robert Sanchez as the clocked ticked towards 90 minutes.
Eze had a shot from the edge of the box blocked but his team seemed to tire in stoppage time and Jackson had two great opportunities to snatch a winner for the Blues.
First he drove a shot into the side netting to the right of Dean Henderson's goal and a minute later was played in behind the defence only for the keeper to quickly leave his line to avert the danger.
Despite just over eight minutes of added time, neither side could find another goal and the game ended in a stalemate.
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca was not overly disappointed with his team's display however.
"I feel a bit of shame for the result but not the performance. The direction is the correct one," the 44-year-old Italian said.
"We completely deserved to win the game. We had many, many chances. The most important thing was the performance and the performance was there."
With Chelsea's new signing Jadon Sancho watching from the stands, Maresca said he expected things to improve.
"We didn't take the three points but playing the way we did today, I think we will win games ... with the players arriving now we can (be) even better."
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Toby Chopra and Ken Ferris)
